Really, I Have No Idea

Respond to every call that excites your spirit.
~Rumi

It began rather innocently. 

I was looking at some balls of Jamieson's Spindrift Shetland yarn, dreaming about colors. I got to thinking about how different tweedy and heathery yarns look when they are knit up than they look in the ball. Several different colors look very much the same in the ball, and it seemed like a good idea, at that moment, to knit a few swatches so I could see their true nature.

I've knit little swatches like these before, but they were really too small to be useful. Why not knit something substantial?, went my thinking. Say, 4.5" x 4.5". Garter edges, stocking stitch centers. Done and done.

But a strange thing happened. I grew enamored of my swatches and kept knitting more and more of them. They feel so nice, a quality that doesn't show in the photos.

To keep track of which one was which I decided to add little labels. 

Sewn on.

I couldn't leave the house without my knitting bag, ready to knit these addictive squares at the drop of a hat. 

I now have a little stack of these swatches--19 and one half, to be exact. I like to pet them, and arrange them in different ways. I like deciding which color to swatch next.

Piled up, they have the same allure as Sarah Swett's tapestry book or Alabama Chanin embroidery sample books. Last April I wrote, in a blog entry ominously entitled Suddenly You Realize You Are Obsessed:

Books. I'm obsessed with books.

Not necessarily the ones lining the shelves in our living room. And dining room. And office. And bedroom. And kitchen. (Note to self: thats a lot of books.)

No, the FORM of books as repositories of dreams, inspiration, personal stories.... repositories of stories in fabric, the more I think about it.

I am inordinately fond of these swatches. They seem to be repositories of stories in fabric. There are 212 colors of Spindrift. This can lead to no good....

Swatches with strange carved cat face we found in the garden....

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Talking about Spindrift colors, I'm happy to announce that there are two new ones (in stock at Feral Knitter)!

400 Mimosa, a beautiful clear yellow

780 Lime, a beautiful clear yellow-green

Comments

[Penny]

Oooo, I love those two new colors...what to do with them?

[tori]

i see many, many little squares in your future.........

[Carol]

I am inordinately obsessed by your obsessions.

[kristieinbc]

Your swatches are so beautiful! We knitters are a strange lot, that's for sure. :-)

[Celeste]

It's always great fun to play with colors! Who knows where it will lead...and who cares? Enjoy to the fullest!

[Gretchen]

Some time probably long before I was born, my mother crocheted a bunch of small granny-afghan units about 3" square with three rings of various different colors, each bordered with black (this must have been the fad of some era. My aunt's couch displayed a complete afghan made in this way). She grew bored with the project long before she had enough squares to make an afghan, but she kept the squares in a bag and finally gave them to me when I was a young child. I loved them - on rainy days I would bring them out, arrange them and re-arrange them, choose my favorites. . . so I can definitely see where you're headed with these Spindrift swatches!

[Kris]

"I like to pet them" - lol. Something only other yarn enthusiasts can understand.

[Natalie]

I can totally understand why you keep doing the swatches - it's such lovely wool to work with.

Those are lovely new colours. You should do those two next ;)

[Deb Tanner]

I believe that people (without OCD :))become obsessed with something because their brains have discovered a wonderful new game with learning attached - in this case, learning about the colors and textures and, most of all, the energy of the yarn. And, as you knit and pet and love them, that energy feeds your creative spirit as well as data banks. Someday, you'll design a whole new line of beautiful hats and have "no idea" where it all started!

[Nancy]

The two new colors have definite possibilities in my life. The cat? Hmmm.